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Careers September 4, 2008, 5:00PM EST

The Best Places to Launch a Career

(page 4 of 4)

Money is all well and good, but nothing says "stay for the long haul" like a promotion. So companies are experimenting with ways to accelerate the process. While many companies award promotions only when a vacancy exists, several, including Philip Morris USA, have shifted to a system that considers employees for new positions whenever they're ready—vacancy or not—thereby removing one of the biggest obstacles to promotion. And Whirlpool (WHR) is now giving employees a chance to fast-track their careers by offering them opportunities to work on special projects that will enhance their skills, thus making them eligible for promotions earlier. The projects can be anything from a 60-day stint with HR to six months spent designing a new appliance. The pilot program was started in July, but the company expects it to be popular with young employees and to improve retention, which is already the best among consumer products companies in our ranking. "The more opportunities we can provide our employees to engage in meaningful work and challenging assignments, the more quickly we can help them achieve career goals," says Jeff Beavers, Whirlpool's director of global university relations.

The problem with providing all that meaningful work, however, is that too much can quickly lead to burnout—especially for a generation for whom work-life balance is a priority. This is a major concern in industries such as consulting, where long hours and nonstop travel can take their toll on new grads—driving as many as two-thirds to bolt inside of five years. To prevent that, Boston Consulting Group takes unusual precautions, monitoring employee hours through a formal early-warning system and sounding the alarm when hours approach the burnout zone.

On her first assignment, a stint in Toronto, Allie Melnick averaged 75 hours a week over a three-week period. The 23-year-old associate showed no signs of distress—to hear her describe it, she barely broke a sweat—but the long hours alone triggered BCG's early-warning system. Her project leader pulled her aside to find out how she was handling the pressure, then BCG quickly reorganized the case team, adding staffers and redistributing the workload to give Melnick a break. BCG's response made a big impression on her. "If you're working hard, people notice it," says Melnick. "It was a good feeling."

For many new college grads, however, nothing gets the juices flowing quite like a chance to speak truth to power. Mingling with top executives and having their ideas heard by senior managers is particularly important to Gen Y workers. So providing those opportunities is becoming a priority for many employers. Ernst & Young last year allowed interns aboard the corporate jet for some face time with the chief executive. Mark Kappelman, 24, an Arizona State accounting graduate who chose E&Y over the three other Big Four firms, said senior-level access is typical for new hires as well, and was one of the things that helped him handle all the duties he received in his first few months on the job. Says Kappelman: "It's a very uphill learning curve in the first year. They throw a lot of responsibility at you."

Some companies have even begun taking on the role of surrogate parents to attract and retain a generation often criticized as being far too dependent on mom and dad. Many companies, including Cisco Systems (CSCO), Unilever, and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, will now finance your move, help you pay for that laptop you can't afford, or even pick up the full tab for graduate school.

Some go even further. IBM brings in financial coaches from Ayco and Fidelity Investments to advise young employees. Nearly half of IBM's U.S. workforce uses the program, tapping the coaches for advice on everything from 401(k)s to mortgages. Darien Davis, a financial analyst in IBM's software group, says his coach taught him how to manage his student loan payments and still save for retirement, bringing a new "level of discipline" to his financial life. That was kind of the point, says Karen Salinaro, an HR vice-president. "You're just out of school, and you're trying to figure out how to live on the salary you're making," Salinaro says. "These are tools to help you and give you one-on-one interaction, rather than asking your mom and dad."

Perhaps the most unconventional method for holding on to the best entry-level talent is showing them the door—at least temporarily. A number of companies now offer employees a chance to work with nonprofits, a shot at saving the world without sacrificing their jobs. At Verizon Communications (VZ), dozens of employees, many of them Gen Yers, are dispatched to K-12 classrooms across the country each year to preach the benefits of studying engineering and computer sciences, disciplines that Verizon relies on to fill its talent pipeline.

At Boston Consulting Group, employees with 18 months at the firm can spend up to a year working at a nonprofit. Employees receive two-thirds of their pay; BCG and the nonprofit split the bill. Albert Chu, 24, who is spending a year with Save the Children, says BCG's philanthropic bent was a big reason he joined the firm after graduating from Duke in 2005—and a big reason he hopes to remain there for years to come. That's a long way from his original plan, which involved using consulting as a more immediate springboard into the nonprofit world. "I had always been looking at this as a short-term thing," says Chu, echoing a common sentiment among new college grads.

Not anymore.

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For New Grads, a Cold, Cruel World

College graduates might think their hard-earned degrees have bought them a measure of security, but economists Lawrence Mishel and Elise Gould, writing for the Economic Policy Institute, show just how wrong that sort of thinking can be. Their research shows that this year's crop of grads faces a job market even more inhospitable than that of 2001, at the start of the last recession. Inflation-adjusted hourly wages, health insurance coverage, and pension coverage for twentysomethings have all slipped considerably since then.

Gerdes is a staff editor for BusinessWeek in New York.

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